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A New Paradigm in DNN Theme Development with Official Release of nvQuickTheme 1.0.0

nvQuickTheme is more than just a great minimalist DNN (DotNetNuke) theme. It is a powerful theme building framework and developer workflow. This "starter solution" was made with developer efficiency and the ultimate DNN theme performance in mind. Most DNN themes in the marketplace today are loaded with bloat, which can make theming a pain, and for someone new to DNN, almost impossible. Our documentation will outline basic usage, modification, and advanced usage of this framework and developer workflow.

Are you tired of spending countless hours trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your DNN themes, just so you can rank better on Google PageSpeed Insights? How are your scores? Have you broken the 80s for Desktop or the 60s for Mobile? You have probably discovered by now that it is very tough to accomplish this on a DNN site.

Well, the search is over! Utilizing nvQuickTheme, you can rest assured that you are doing everything you possibly can within the context of the theme to achieve stellar scores. As a matter of fact, the nvQuickTheme website, which of course is running nvQuickTheme, scores 93/100 (Desktop) and 75/100 (Mobile). Yes, you read that correctly. If you don't believe us, please feel free to analyze it yourself!

Background

There have been many ways to develop DNN themes over the years. Some start from scratch using pure HTML with the [TOKEN] based model provided by DNN. Others, especially more hardcore developers, start with ASP.NET Web User Controls (instead of pure HTML). All end up using some shape, form, fashion or flavor of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Javascript (JS).

Some work with a manual workflow, editing flat files with their favorite code/text editor and wiring everything up "old school". Others use a fully Integrated Development Environment (IDE), like Visual Studio. Many even use the famous Christoc Visual Studio Templates for building out themes in a more structured way. Yet others develop their own unique workflows that best suit their particular use case.

The nvisionative team has been working in the DNN ecosystem since its inception and has seen all sorts of approaches for custom and commercial themes alike. A large majority of these themes are bloated with all sorts of widgets, 3rd party components, bells, whistles, etc. Given the great depth of experience over the years, our team has identified so many ways to resolve issues in and improve DNN themes. From best practices to HUGE performance enhancements, there have been so many lessons learned. Now it is time give back to this great community that has provided so much to us.

Comments

I love the nv quicksite tool and am excited about this tool. Is there an oportunity to contribute? I looked at the github repo but did not see tasks/issues that I could help with. Great job guys, this is the type of work that helps to move DNN into the future!

Jordan, thank you for the kind words of encouragement. There is absolutely opportunity to contribute. I’d recommend using nvQuickTheme and posting any issues for bugs, enhancements, etc. you see benefiting others in general. That would be a great help! As activity picks up with this, I’m sure there will eventually be items that you could try and contribute on. Let us know how things go once you’ve had some time to take it through the paces.

@alex (and others),I'm writing down my discoveries down on https://github.com/Tychodewaard/nvQuickTheme/wikiMost of your questions are answered there. When it's a bit more mature and I know how to make a pull request with wiki-pages, I'll contribute to the original work.

Hello everyone. We have it on our to-do list to convert the Wiki to different docs solution that allows pull requests. We started this process but have not finished it. Perhaps someone that knows GitHub Pages and Jekyll, we would welcome your help. You will see we started the process in the /docs folder of the repo, but it is incomplete. Once we get this completed, it will allow PRs for the docs (since they are just files within the repo), will allow local visibility of docs during development and will allow viewing of docs on the GitHub Pages implementation for nvQuickTheme. :)

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